The invention is based on a fuel injection pump as defined hereinafter. In a fuel injection pump of this kind known from German Offenlegungsschrift No. 31 28 975, a control groove which extends obliquely with respect to the distributor axis in the jacket face of the distributor is provided as the first control opening, cooperating with a mouth of the fuel supply conduit serving as the second control opening. The leading control edge of this control groove determines the end of fuel feeding by the pump pistons to the injection valves, while the fuel supply via the opened magnetic valve occurs in the zone where the oblique control edge coincides with the inlet opening of the fuel supply conduit. At the instant when the control groove coincides with the mouth of the fuel supply conduit, the magnetic valve in the fuel supply conduit has already opened. The end of fuel supply is varied by longitudinally displacing the distributor. In the known type of injection pump, the pump pistons are guided in bores leading radially toward the distributor and are actuated by a revolving cam drive. With the known apparatus, an arbitrary point for injection can be established in the course of the pumping stroke, by appropriately actuating the metering valve in the fuel supply conduit and by means of the adjusting device of the distributor, so that it is possible to regulate both the injection onset and the end of injection with variable injection quantities, as well as to set a predetermined rate of supply.
In the known apparatus, however, the entire distributor must be displaced for the sake of control purposes mentioned above, which necessitates an expensive coupling of the distributor with the drive of the fuel injection pump. Furthermore, the opportunities for providing transducers for feedback of the position at any given time of the control groove relative to the inlet opening of the fuel supply conduit are relatively limited in the known apparatus.